TubeMogul looks to give insights on online video ads to advertisers

Digital video advertising software provider, TubeMogul, is offering any brand or ad agency a free tool that enables them to find out if consumers are actually looking at their video ads.

The TubeMogul Viewability Audit tool provides metrics and reporting into the rates at which video ads are watched, and applies to any video ad a marketer buys – not just those bought through TubeMogul. The company said it is delivering breakthrough measurement and visibility into the digital video advertising market.

“There is an old adage in advertising that marketers don’t know which 50 percent of their advertising is wasted. TubeMogul is using the power of software to actually show advertisers the performance of every video ad they buy in real-time,” said TubeMogul’s Southeast Asia Managing Director, Phu Truong.

The software tool, Viewability Audit, is a self-serve tool that is simple to set up. Advertisers simply apply industry standard video tags into their video creative, and TubeMogul creates a new tag that enables the reporting data. The audit looks to solve a common problem for marketers as viewability reporting is currently a morass of differing, proprietary standards.

“We believe we are changing the landscape for digital video advertising by making it simple to see if their ads are being viewed,” said Mr Truong.

The TubeMogul Viewability Audit tool gives brand marketers reporting for every partner from a single interface. For advertisers already using a viewability solution from their ad server, the audits provide an additional layer of transparency to verify where ads are running, troubleshoot discrepancies and diagnose why viewability or measurability rates might be low.

“Given the premium paid for video ads, brand advertisers deserve to know whether their ads are actually being watched and should be able to stop spending money where they are being ignored. By offering comprehensive auditing free of charge, we are making that level of control a reality,” added Mr Truong.

The TubeMogul reporting tool is powered by OpenVV, the open-source viewability technology developed by TubeMogul, and also supported by a consortium of 21 companies, including Nielsen and VivaKi.

“TubeMogul is committed to providing brands with the best metrics and software to ensure they understand the value and performance of their digital advertising spend. Viewability measurement is becoming a big issue for marketers and we have moved quickly to assist them in getting insight into the performance of their video branding campaigns,” added Mr Truong.

The technology also claims to tell marketers why an ad is not getting watched. Real-time metrics include how much of a video ad is in-frame, whether a viewer is in another tab or window, whether a video is muted, player size, how many ads are measurable and more — all at different intervals of playback.

The technology can be applied to any standard for video viewability that the Interactive Advertising Bureau adopts.